Discovering the Deep

About the Book

The deep oceans and global seafloor are truly Earth's last frontier. This magnificent, full-color volume transports you to bizarre landscapes hosting exotic life forms that rival the most imaginative science fiction. This indispensable reference and visually stunning resource will enlighten and intrigue oceanographers and enthusiasts alike.

Features:

Provides a comprehensive, up-to-date view of the oceanic crust, seafloor features, and seafloor volcanism, uniting studies of related phenomena in a single volume

Contains extraordinary images of the seafloor and representative geological, geochemical and biological features, combined with accompanying online visual and teaching materials to provide a unique resource

Video Gallery

Exclusive deep-sea footage takes you on a dive into the abyss

Inferno Palm and Tube Worms -
Hydrothermal Vents on Axial Seamount -
The ROV Jason images the 4 m tall, actively venting black smoker chimney called Inferno within the ASHES Hydrothermal Vent Field at the summit of Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge. The metal sulfide deposit is covered in tubeworms, scaleworms, palmworms, white limpets, and bacteria that thrive in the absence of sunlight, using chemosynthesis to drive their metabolisms. Credit: J. Delaney and D. Kelley, University of Washington, NSF-OOI/WHOI; Enlighten’10 Expedition.

Black Smoker Chimney Sully -
In 2005, a temperature-chlorinity probe was installed by the ROV Jason into the throat of the 360°C black smoker chimney called Sully that was emitting boiling fluids. The chimney is located in the Main Endeavour Vent Field, on the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge at a water depth of ~ 2200 m. Lush tubeworms with red plumes thrived here in 2005. Credit: J. Delaney and D. Kelley, University of Washington,
KECK-UW-WHOI; VISIONS’05 Expedition.

Galapagos Rift Biology in the Rosebud Vent -
In May 2002, the submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle ABE (Autonomous Benthic Explorer) explored some of the first known hydrothermal vents sites along the Galápagos Spreading Center (GSC) between 86° W and 90° W and discovered that the well-known Rose Garden field was buried by a recent eruption. The video shows the animals and venting at the Rosebud (2470 m) field, which occupies the site near the Rose Garden and, supports both small Riftia tubeworms and mussels on which brachyuran crabs were feeding.

Galápagos animals -
Macro-video imagery collected by the submersible Alvin of hydrothermal vent fauna inhabiting the Rosebud vent field on the Galápagos Rift in 2002 when it was discovered.

East Pacific Rise Tube Worm -
Close up Alvin imagery of a single Riftia pachytila tubeworm slowly emerging from it’s chitonous tube (~2 cm in diameter). Like a fish gill, the highly vascularized red "plume" provides gas exchange with the environment (e.g., hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and oxygen). With no mouth, gut, or anus, the plume provides the conduit for nutrients to microbes living in the worm’s trophosome where the microbes live.

West Mata Eruption 2009 -
The first deep-sea eruption observed by scientists using the ROV Jason during a cruise sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Ridge2000 Program. In 2009, the West Mata volcano south of Samoa, was observed to be erupting at 1200 m. Tubes of pillow lava formed as 1200°C molten lavas quickly froze when it came into contact with near freezing seawater at the ocean floor. For more information see this link: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/laubasin...

Download more resources from Discovering the Deep¸ including a PowerPoint designed by the authors, here

Discovering the Deep: A Photographic Atlas of the Seafloor and Ocean Crust

Product details

"This is the book I wish I'd had on my eight deep ocean expeditions, to better understand the wonders I was gazing upon. A must-own for anyone in the ocean sciences, and for those simply curious about what lies down there in the most remote realm on our planet."

James Cameron, explorer and film-maker

"Discovering the Deep will open your eyes to the largest and most unexplored region on Earth… this beautifully illustrated and comprehensive account shows how far we have come over the last forty years in our understanding of this fundamental tectonic feature of the Earth and the technology required to investigate it."

Robert D. Ballard, President of the Ocean Exploration Trust

Media Coverage

Image Gallery

Explore the Mid-Ocean Ridge with hundreds of images

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Powered by Cincopa Video Hosting for Business solution.Discovering the DeepThe deep-diving submersible Alvin preparing to dive to the axis of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Alvin carries one pilot and two observers and has made more than 4600 dives to the seafloor since it was built in the 1960s.Alvin currently descends to a maximum depth of 4500 m; however, its titanium personnel sphere was replaced in 2013 with one that is certified to dive in 6500 m. The support ship for Alvin is the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis, operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 3096height 1937The AUV ABE (Autonomous Benthis Explorer) developed and operated by WHOI (left) being launched in 2001.The WHOI AUV Sentry (right) has a dive capability of 6 km and includes multibeam, sidescan, and CHIPR sub-bottom sonar, and a variety of water properties sensors, as well as a digital still camera and strobes that enable it to take continuous photographic images of the seafloor. Sentry has now replaced ABE as the AUV system in the National Deep Submergence Facility at WHOI.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 3905height 1500REMUS (Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS) are a class of torpedo-shaped AUV’s (left) operated by the Ocean Systems Laboratory (OSL) at WHOI that provide autonomous survey capability over a depth range from 100t o 6000 m.The vehicles have been used for measurement of coastal water properties and currents, high-resolution sidescan and multibeam mapping, and for military applications associated with mine clearing operations in coastal waters. A REMUS 6000 A UV being recovered (right). The OSL Group was responsible for the search and discovery of the black box of Air France Flight 447.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 3703height 1695Maurice “Doc” Ewing (top, left) and Allyn Vine (top, right) on the R/V Atlantis holding one of the first deep-sea cameras in the late 1950s. David Owen deploying a deep-sea camera from R/V Vema in the late 1950s (bottom).Maurice “Doc” Ewing (top, left) and Allyn Vine (top, right) on the R/V Atlantis holding one of the first deep-sea cameras in the late 1950s. David Owen deploying a deep-sea camera from R/V Vema in the late 1950s (bottom).originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 1458height 2691The newest deep-diving human-occupied submersible – Alvin, of WHOI – was placed into service in early 2014.It is currently certified to -400 m, but will eventually be able to dive to 6500 m with two observers and one pilot, as it has done throughout its operational career.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 1782height 2592Illustration showing the ROV Jason2 and a deep-sea light system used for illuminating the seafloor for high-definition video imaging during a University of Washington experiment on Juan de Fuca Ridge in 2005.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 1791height 1464The main components of a telepresence system – the ROV at the seafloor making observations (center), and the fiber-optic cable transmitting data and imagery from the ROV up the cable to the support ship and the scientists onboard (upper right). Via the Internet, these data and imagery are now streamed live to shore-based laboratories, educators and to the general public, who experience real-time interactions with scientists and engineers while getting information from the ROV as it explores the ocean depths (right).originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 2490height 1401A high-definition still camera deployed in front of “Mushroom Vent” on Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge as part of the Ocean Observing Initiative experiment, and a 3D thermistor array (blue rods) positioned over a diffuse flow vent.The orange coil of cable is the power and data “extension” cord, a fiber-optic cable that transmits the imagery and thermistor data from the instruments back to shore-based laboratories for analysis. Field of view – 6 m.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 3703height 2423Investigations of the axial regions of active spreading centers (left) and major escarpment “tectonic windows” (right) provide different but complementary perspectives on the oceanic crust and seafloor spreading processes.Numbered black lines showing locations of near-bottom studies – both submersible dives and camera tows. White stars show locations of ODP/IODP drill holes.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 3607height 1600Drilling into exposures of plutonic rocks on the seafloor has recovered extensive cores of deep crustal gabbroic rocks with diverse textures and mineralogies (left) and serpentinized upper mantle peridotites (right).ODP Leg 154, Holes 924 and 920. Cores are about 5 cm wide.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 1067height 1815The global MOR system is a continuous network of volcanic and tectonic features marking divergent lithosphere plate boundaries. This global perspective highlights the MOR (relatively shallow light-green area on the seafloor) as it encircles the globeThe East Pacific Rise (left globe) is a fast- to superfast-spreading ridge, while the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (middle) is a slow-spreading ridge. MORs in the floor of the Indian Ocean (right) include the Southeast Indian Ridge and Central Indian Ridge, and the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge.originaldate 1/1/0001 6:00:00 AMwidth 3433height 1146